Energy expert Ted Blom has been bellowing from the burrows about a dire situation facing Eskom and if he truly has his finger on the pulse, then South Africa could be in for a loadshedding hike to Stage 4 this week.
Eskom headed to Stage 4 loadshedding?
In a tweet published two days after he’d hit the money on the return of Stage 2 rotational power cuts, Blom revealed that a strained Eskom would have no choice but to leave South Africa in the cold with Stage 4 loadshedding.
This, Blom predicted, could be expected as early as Wednesday evening.
I am expecting increased loadshedding probability as from Wed eve (2nd June 2021) – level 4 or above.
— Ted Blom (@tedblom) June 1, 2021
‘Unplug Western Cape from the grid’ – DA
On Wednesday, the Democratic Alliance’s Ghaleb Cachalia released a statement calling for the government to spare the Western Cape from inheriting the country’s problems.
Cachalia leaned on Blom’s prediction to launch an attack on the ANC, accusing the governing party of “dithering on Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to add additional capacity to the grid and stumbling on renewable energy projects.”
“The DA-run Western Cape government is proving that we are the only party that can free South Africa from loadshedding. The Western Cape has allocated almost R70 million to free the province’s municipalities from Eskom’s grip and to defeat loadshedding through the Municipal Energy Resilience (MER) project. The MER project will assist six municipalities in generating and selling their own electricity and empower them to purchase energy directly from IPPs,” Cachalia exclaimed.
These municipalities include:
- Drakenstein Municipality;
- Mossel Bay Municipality;
- Overstrand Municipality;
- Saldanha Bay Municipality;
- Stellenbosch Municipality; and
- Swartland Municipality.
So far, the DA’s efforts in unplugging the Western Cape from the national power grid have been meted by downright defiance from the government and delays in court proceedings.
“South Africa cannot continue to be dragged down by Eskom. The DA will continue to challenge Eskom’s monopolistic grip on our energy supply,” Cachalia added.
Eskom has yet to provide an update on the situation it faces. At this time, there has been no confirmation of stage 4 loadshedding.